The 36th Contingency Response Group recently left Andersen AFB, Guam, to participate in this year’s Balikatan 06 exercise, scheduled to run from Feb. 20 to March 5. Balikatan, a Tagalog word for “shouldering the load together,” is a yearly bilateral exercise between Philippine and US forces that began 22 years ago. Air Force participants include the 36th CRG, the 291st and 293rd Expeditionary Combat Communications Flights, the 31st and 33rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadrons, and the 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron.
The nation needs a better-coordinated policy for dealing with unmanned aerial systems that threaten domestic bases, Air Force vice chief of staff Gen. James C. Slife told a panel of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He and Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante co-chair a panel looking at counter-UAS…